Pages

Thursday, April 16

86 Days in and President Obama is heading down Mexico way

April 16, 2009 a total of 86 days into the 1461 day term and President Barack Obama is heading to Mexico. But what will President Obama’s visit do that Secretary Clinton’s visit didn’t do last month?

The intent is to continue the discussions with the Mexican Government in an effort to reduce the trafficking of illegal drugs, guns and cash into and out of Mexico.

US President Barack Obama and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon will be discussing more than the cross border drug war and violence that is ragging on both sides of the US Mexico borders during this trip. The two President's will be attempting to find ways to work together on the economy, energy, immigration and a dispute over whether Mexican trucks can travel American roads to deliver goods to the United States.

But what and where does that leave us currently?

After another action packed week in the world, where pirates made raids, took hostages and made massive ransom demands. A week that had Navy Special Forces involved in the rescue of a captain of a merchant vessel held captive by the pirates after a foiled attempt to capture the vessel itself.

A week that watched the financial markets roll like the waves of the ocean that captivated much of the nations attention. Surging up and rolling back in a way that made many stop and ponder if in fact, the bottom of the financial free fall had been reached. If the economy was now going to plain out and start running along in a flat manner until the upturn would eventually start.

Though, in our latest reports the initial claims for unemployment have dropped rather unexpectedly, the people who are still in the system drawing on those benefits remains in record breaking levels. The initial unemployment claims dropped by 53,000 to 610,000 for the week ending April 11, 2009. That is the lowest level for new unemployment claims filings since January according to the Labor Department. The job losses have covered all fields and trades but have devastated the manufacturing and construction trades.

The slowing of the downsizing of the American workforce may be an indicator that the downward spiral of the economic recession may be stabilizing. At least that’s what many of the US economists are saying currently. What does that mean to those already on or about to go on unemployment?

Unfortunately it does not speak of too much in the way of good prospects for getting out of the system any time soon.

This early indication of approaching the bottom of the downturn (if that is what this is rather than a simple temporary leveling of the downturn) does not indicate the length of time that will be spent at the bottom or if it will skip along the bottom of this recessionary curve. Rather, it is a numeric return that may or may not be a factual indicator of a slowing in the recessionary downturn in the US and Global economies.

The real indicator won’t be visible until the summer job numbers become available. If the TARP and other programs are working, the proof will be in those numbers.

Currently though, the number of unemployed workers in the United States drawing from the unemployment funds is over 6 million.